A SPECIAL service will be held at Gougane Barra on Sunday to mark the 1,400th anniversary of the death of St Finbarr.
Bishop of Cork & Ross Fintan Gavin will preside over the mass at the historic site on Sunday October 1st to honour the patron saint. Mass will take place at 3pm, preceded by a rosary at 2.30 pm.
Fr Bernard Cotter, former Parish Priest of Uibh Laoire and Co-PP in Castlehaven Parish will preach the homily. The Ballingeary Pipe Band will lead the procession to the shrine.
St Finbarr established an early monastic community at Gougane Barra and went on to found a centre of learning in the marshes which later grew into the city of Cork.
The people of West Cork and Kerry have an unbroken tradition of going to Gougane Barra to pray, a tradition that survived the Penal Laws. During the Penal Laws, when the celebration of Mass was outlawed, lay people developed their own way of praying there, and this became known as 'doing the rounds'.
To this day, communities still call there on hearing of an illness or need for prayer in their community.
